Talk:Museum shop

Latest comment: 3 years ago by Macrakis in topic Categories

Categories edit

@Jpbowen:, thanks for the edits on this article! One thing -- I don't think the categories you've added, Category:Museum companies and Category:Museum organizations, are appropriate for this article. The first is defined as "Companies that provide services for museums and art galleries", and lists specific companies (not categories of companies) which are outside providers of services to museums, such as audio guides, publishing, exhibition design, software, etc. The second doesn't have an explicit definition, but seems to include associations of museums. Museum shops, on the other hand, are typically run as departments of the museum, just like the Education department (which sometimes includes the shop) and the Conservation department. --Macrakis (talk) 21:46, 21 August 2020 (UTC)Reply

Agreed that there is no ideal category at the moment, but museum shops are often run as separate enterprises – e.g., as a company where the museum itself is a charity. Category:Museums is too high in any case and should only include very high-level articles like "Museum" (and "Portal:Museums"). If you think a new category is appropriate, do go ahead and create it. I can't think of the ideal solution just now. Perhaps "Category:Museum departments" would work, including museum education for example. But it may need a bit of thought. —Jonathan Bowen (talk) 11:04, 22 August 2020 (UTC)Reply
There are different ways of organizing museum shops. Some are entirely run by the museum. Some are owned by the museum, but an outside company is contracted to operate them (which is probably more advantageous for taxation than an independent company). And some are independent concessions that lease the space. Certainly topics worth discussing in the article. But that doesn't make museum shops "museum companies" or "museum organizations" -- although a company which specializes in running museum shops would qualify as 'Museum companies' (which is a strange name for the category, but that's another issue). We can think about adding Category:Museum departments or Category:Museum services, but in the meantime, the only category I can see that fits is Category:Museums. --Macrakis (talk) 16:37, 22 August 2020 (UTC)Reply